Paradip: Port town Paradip stares at a water shortage ahead of summer season as authorities Wednesday clamped an odd-even water supply scheme to combat the impending water supply crisis in the town. The new scheme does away with the usual twice-a-day water supply to the households in the port town. Reports said this has been done due to ongoing renovation works of Taladanda canal by the state Water Resources Department.
As a result, people in the port town are getting water supplied to their households for half an hour once a day, and twice on the next day, for half an hour each in the morning and evening. Ahead of the implementation of the proposed odd-even water supply scheme, the port authorities have informed the denizens through public address system. People were asked to cooperate with the administration and make judicious use of water. However, the odd-even scheme is not new to the port town, and has been in practice since 2013. Locals said the scheme was being implemented every year from January.
However, this year authorities decided to implement it from December 18, Wednesday. Restricted water supply has hit the denizens as many families alleged they were not getting enough water for daily consumption. Sources said the renovation of 90-km long Taladanda canal, which stretches from Jobra area in Cuttack city till Atharbanki in Paradip, is yet to be completed as work is taken up for only six months in a year.
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On the other hand, the water retaining capacity of Mahanadi has been declining causing water scarcity. The previous BJD government had announced the construction of an anicut at Bhhotmundai near Paradip last year. However, with the change in state government, talks on the construction of the anicut have disappeared. Paradip Port draws water from Mahanadi in Cuttack through the Taladanda canal and stores it in a large pond spread over 175 acre at Atharbanki. The pond was initially 13 feet in depth, which helped the port town manage its water needs for a period of six months.
However, with passage of time, the water body has been buried and is only four feet in depth at present. All attempts by port authorities to excavate it further and make it deeper have failed. An engineer of the Paradip Port’s public health department said that the excavation work was aborted as it was found during a review that further digging of the pond will result in accumulation of saline water. As an alternative, planning is on to bring water to the town through pipelines, he said.
